


jasmine tea and relearning how to live

by zeldainhiding



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, aang has many smol freakouts, absolute shenanigans, and zuko is gonna lose his goddamned mind if she bounces on the beds, katara drenches zuko in cold tea, mai deserves better, sokka and zuko Bro Time, suki is absolutely iconic always, tea-pong is a thing, toph is determined to have a sleepover at the fire palace, uncle iroh is here and he loves u
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26731066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldainhiding/pseuds/zeldainhiding
Summary: Zuko’s finally accepted his place in the world – now it’s time to accept his place among his friends.Zuko knows that Uncle Iroh’s favourite time in all the world is the two nights a week that the Jasmine Dragon is taken over by the rowdy warmth of team Avatar (as Sokka still occasionally insists on calling them, and which, much to his chagrin, Zuko has ended up adopting).His Uncle has never said it aloud, but Zuko is starting to get better at understanding the things said to him without words.Or: the Jasmine Dragon after closing time: post-canon shenanigans, friendship, and healing.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 9
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

The setting sun bleeds a soft, glowy orange over the spiked black roofs of the Fire Palace, and Zuko heaves a heavy sigh.

‘It’s been a long day,’ Aang agrees, slumping down onto the veranda tiles and waterbending the light sheen of sweat from his brow. Zuko nods silently, still gazing at the sky. It has been nearly three months since he took the throne, and whilst he never would’ve expected it to be anything even close to easy, he’s not sure how well he’d have coped without Aang’s regular, steadying presence.

The crown weighs heavy on Zuko’s head.

The sun nestles lower across the mountaintops, and he pulls the golden pin from his bun, letting his hair fall out and pool over his shoulders. Aang looks up and smiles as Zuko slides down beside him, resting the crown at his feet, its golden facets shimmering with reflections of the sunset.

‘Sokka and Katara are with Appa today,’ Aang says with a soft smile. ‘But they’re due to pick us up anytime now. I told them what time our meeting ended.’

‘No accounting for Sokka’s timekeeping,’ Zuko says with a smirk, which makes Aang grin, which in turn fills Zuko with a warmth as if he’d just summoned his own flickering, gentle flame. One of the great delights of his life, he’s discovered recently, is being able to joke with and about these people. The ability to catch someone off-guard and pull a smile out of them, the chance to brighten someone’s day just a tiny bit more.

‘I take it they’re out helping refugees again then, if they’ve got Appa?’

‘Yeah,’ Aang says. His smile falters a little. ‘It seems an infinite number of people, Zuko. Endless sick, elderly, tiny babies even. Infinite people who’d be forever wandering without their help.’

‘I thought Suki said the flood of refugees onto the airships was slowing, though?’

‘Yeah, but the airship fleet is only returning people to their homelands from Ba Sing Se and other major cities. Katara and Sokka’s plan was to search for the lost, the displaced travellers.’ Aang’s brow screws up. ‘You know this, they’ve definitely told you.’

Zuko lowered his head, staring at the crown at his feet. ‘I’m sure they have. I’m sorry.’

Aang wrapped his arm around Zuko and yanked him into a sideways hug, his surprised yelp that followed briefly filling the warm evening air. ‘Don’t be sorry, silly. You’re doing great.’

‘You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to tonight all this week,’ Zuko sighs.

‘I do know. I have too.’ Aang rests his head gently on Zuko’s caped shoulder, and the pair silently watch the sun sink a little lower.

When he leaps up, it’s sudden, shocking yet another embarrassing yelp from Zuko. Aang bounces forwards across the veranda, pointing unsteadily at a large shadow sweeping over the horizon.

‘They’re here!’

The Avatar’s face is the sun, Zuko graced by its warmth.

***

Zuko knows that Uncle Iroh’s favourite time in all the world is the two nights a week that the _Jasmine Dragon_ is taken over by the rowdy warmth of team Avatar (as Sokka still occasionally insists on calling them, and which, much to his chagrin, Zuko has ended up adopting).

His Uncle has never said it aloud, but Zuko is starting to get better at understanding the things said to him without words.

‘No shop talk tonight!’ Sokka says with a beam as Aang helps pull Zuko up into Appa’s saddle.

‘ _Shop_ talk?’ Katara replies, eyebrow raised.

Sokka shrugs. ‘You know what I mean. Restoring peace to the world, reunifying the four nations, completely redefining the culture of the Fire Nation. All that!’

Zuko bites back a grin, but Sokka has seen it, and his beam widens even further. He settles himself more comfortably in the saddle, leaning over the side to give Appa’s fur a stroke.

‘Are we going to Ba Sing Se or not?’ Katara asks, but she’s smiling too. ‘We’re gonna be the last ones there at this rate! Yip yip!’

They aren’t the last ones there, not even close, and so when they arrive and Sokka is immediately pulled away for a not-so-inconspicuous make-out in the corner by Suki, Zuko lets Aang and Katara settle into a sundrenched pair of chairs by the window and heads into the back room to prepare them a teapot.

‘Zuko.’ Uncle Iroh’s voice never loses its softness when he welcomes him to the _Jasmine Dragon._ Not upon its original opening when they were refugees, not now that he’s the Firelord.

‘Uncle,’ Zuko replies, as Uncle Iroh turns around to embrace him.

‘How was the council today?’

‘Tiring, as ever,’ Zuko says. ‘But we’re making progress. And Spirits, it feels so good to know that.’

‘I think you need some tea.’ Zuko’s uncle has a twinkle in his eye, and Zuko can’t help but smile.

‘I offered to make Aang and Katara a pot, actually. I owe Aang after all his help today.’ He rethinks. ‘Well, after everything. You know.’

‘You can’t be indebted to Aang forever, Zuko. You must learn to see him as a true friend.’

‘I… I do! I think.’

Uncle Iroh raises his eyebrows before passing him a wooden box. Zuko gives it a sniff – white jasmine, one of his uncle’s favourites.

‘Oh, and don’t forget Ty Lee,’ Iroh says. ‘She arrived with Suki, who I imagine is currently otherwise occupied, but I believe her preference is for a rich spiced chai.’

Zuko nods, and he thinks he hears the unsaid words.

***

Tuesday and Friday are the nights when Zuko feels the most alive. It was his idea in the first place to gather everyone after closing time at the _Jasmine Dragon_ (although he suspects that his uncle may have put the idea into his head at some point, but can’t remember for the life of him when that would have been). Zuko has never missed a single night. It’s not always an identical cast of characters – everyone from Pipsqueak to Haru has turned up on the odd occasion, but Aang, Sokka, Katara and Toph are the dedicated heart of the teashop, and can always, _always_ be relied on to be there.

Tonight is a pretty standard crowd – Suki and Ty Lee come most nights if they’re able to, this evening having made their way up straight from the airbase where the Kyoshi warriors are working. Later in the evening Mai shows up too.

‘Evening, my Firelord,’ she croons. Zuko is not unaware of how much Mai likes calling him that, and so he lets it slide. They exchange a kiss, the conversation Zuko had been having with Toph, Suki and Sokka sliding away from them.

‘How’s your day been?’ Zuko asks her.

She shrugs. ‘Dull. Though seeing you livens things up considerably. What about you?’

‘Long’, he sighs, leaning against the wall. The sky through the window is now dark, Ba Sing Se beneath them sprinkled with specks of evening lights. ‘There’s just so _much_ to consider. So much to do. So much to change.’

Mai runs her hand up his arm. ‘Nobody’s expecting you to right the whole world instantly.’

Another sigh. ‘I know that. Doesn’t stop me wanting to, though.’

Mai wraps her arm around him, and looks across the brightly lit room, full of the clinking of cups and laughing of friends.

‘It stings a little, you know.’

Zuko blinks at her. ‘What does?’

‘I’m not oblivious to the fact that whenever I’m here, nobody but you or Ty Lee ever really talk to me beyond pleasantries.’

Zuko has observed this phenomenon too, but he had just assumed Mai didn’t care. He stares down at his shoes. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise it was something that upset you.’

Mai lets out a low hum. ‘I get it. But you were on the wrong side too. So was Ty Lee, for that matter.’ She gazes over wistfully to where Ty Lee is having a spirited conversation with Suki and Katara. ‘So why is it _my_ presence that seems to end any conversation I enter?’

‘I guess…’ Zuko screwed up his brow. ‘I’m not sure. But… Ty Lee’s been one of your best friends your whole life, right? Why not ask her to help you befriend Suki?’

Mai looks down at her hands, which are fidgeting with the edge of her belt. ‘I guess I could do that.’ She sucks in a deep breath. ‘I just want to be able to think of them as my _friends_ , the way you must do.’

Zuko looks around the room again, his uncle’s voice from earlier that evening reverberating through his skull.

‘Yeah,’ he exhales. ‘Go on. You go talk to Ty Lee.’ He kisses her on the cheek, and she sweeps away from him. ‘ _To my friends_ ’.

Zuko steps outside for a breath of air, and it turns out he’s not the only one seeking a moment of silence beneath the cool of the slinky starlight. The air is cool out here, laced with the golden glow of Ba Sing Se below and the silvery beam of the moon above. Invisible bugs hum through the air, their tiny cries mingling with the bright noises of the city-by-night: the calls of people, the _clomp clack_ of cart wheels on the streets, the chinking of glasses and riotous laughter whenever a bar door opens to release or admit a patron for the night. Against all of this is Aang’s silhouette, shoulders tight and head low.

‘Everything alright, Aang?’ Zuko steps over to where Aang is seated on the steps to the side of the _Jasmine Dragon_ , fingers twisting and untwisting in his lap. ‘You look stressed.’

Aang jolts. ‘I _am_ stressed, Zuko! Worse than stressed!’

Panic floods up through Zuko, a hot, swooping sickness in his chest that tightens his spine and closes his throat. ‘Why? Spirits, what’s going on?’

‘I just… I can’t bring myself to do it! I keep trying, I want to, but in my head I just hear _I’m confused_ and I panic and…’

Zuko has rushed to his knees beside Aang, who is wide-eyed as he babbles.

‘Aang, Aang, slow down. You can’t bring yourself to do _what_?’

‘Ask Katara on a date!’

All of the panic vanishes from Zuko’s body, and it takes a _lot_ of effort to not roll his eyes. He’s actually proud of himself. One for the books. Maybe he’ll even tell Toph.

‘You can’t bring yourself to… ask Katara on a date,’ he repeats drily.

‘Exactly!’ But Aang is still stressing, and Zuko realises how much this matters to him. He’d kind of guessed, these last few months, but it’s still interesting to have it confirmed like this, blasted at him in panic as though he’s someone to be entrusted with such… _normal_ stuff.

Zuko kinda likes it.

He wraps an arm around Aang, settling himself to sit beside him in a repeat of the way Aang comforted him on the veranda of the Fire Palace earlier that evening. ‘I, uh… I’m probably really not the one you want to come to for advice on stuff like this.’

‘You have a girlfriend!’

‘Well, yeah, that’s true. But…’ he pictures Jin. ‘I, uh… being romantic doesn’t come particularly naturally to me. I’m just kinda lucky that Mai and I are on the same wavelength most of the time.’

Aang slumps. ‘I’m _never_ gonna be able to do it!’

‘Can’t you ask Sokka for help?’

Aang raises his eyebrows. ‘Sokka’s her _brother_ , Zuko.’

‘Oh. Yeah.’

Aang drops his face into his hands with a loud groan. A door opens behind them, golden light flooding across the courtyard.

‘Hey, Zuko!’ Toph yells. ‘Get your big butt back in here, I want you on my team for tea pong!’

Aang looks up at him in semi-panic. _Help me_ , he mouths.

‘Ok, fine, I’ll do what I can,’ Zuko says out loud, melting Aang’s expression into a smile (a nervous smile, but still a smile). He raises his voice a little. ‘But only if you don’t use Uncle’s best Sencha again! He was having kittens for days after last time!’

_Thank you_ , Aang mouths.

Zuko gives an exaggerated shrug as he skips back towards the door of the tearoom.

Midway through tea pong (Zuko picked out a weak black chai, and his uncle still seems to be breathing okay, so that’s good), Zuko sidles up beside Katara whilst Sokka takes his shot.

‘So, uh, Katara!’

She looks at him.

‘I, uh…’

Sokka’s ball goes wide, and Toph lets out a spirited giggle as it flies past her head and off into a back corner of the tearoom.

‘Everything okay, Zuko?’

‘Yeah, I just – ’ Zuko can feel his cheeks heat up, and prays desperately that they’re not visibly redder.

‘You’ve gone a little pink,’ Katara says, and Zuko wants to die at the concern in her voice. ‘Are you sure everything’s alright?’

‘Yeah, I just, uh –’ Toph has re-acquired the ball, and is dramatically lining up to take her shot, as if she isn’t just about to cheat anyway. ‘I was wondering, if… about… your love life?’

Katara whips away from the tea pong table to give him a confused look so fast that she has to put down her foot to steady herself. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘If you… if maybe there was anyone… that you liked?’

‘I’m _sorry_ , Zuko?’

‘Uh, what I mean to say is…’ There is no way Zuko isn’t visibly bright red by now. He’s not doing a great job on Aang’s behalf here, and he knows it. ‘If a boy liked you, maybe, and he were to ask you out on a date, I was wondering if you would maybe be interested in – ’

Zuko does not get to finish his sentence. He’s halfway through a word when the entire table of lukewarm teacups are dumped over his head in one dramatic arm-wave from Katara.

She’s furious.

Zuko cannot figure out for the life of him what he’s done to make her so angry, why he’s stood in the middle of a teashop dripping weak chai onto the rug.

‘Katara!’ Sokka shouts, calling to attention the last few people in the room who aren’t already staring at them by now. ‘Why would you do that? Tea pong was just getting interesting!’

Zuko thinks he hears Toph snorting something under her breath, but his attention isn’t on her: it’s on Katara, who is still glaring at him, shaky finger pointing at something, or someone, behind him.

‘Zuko, how _dare_ you! Your girlfriend is _right over there_!’

‘What?’ Zuko is baffled. ‘Yes, I know?’

She is staring at him, but now there is a hint of confusion tinging her anger. ‘Then why on _Earth_ would you think you could… that you…’

Zuko is blinking at her, and it seems they both screech to a halt of crucial understanding simultaneously.

‘You weren’t trying to ask me out, were you.’

Zuko swallows. ‘I really, really wasn’t.’

‘I’d’ve stopped at the first _really_ , dude,’ Sokka interjects. Both Zuko and Katara shoot him an identical look.

‘Spirits, you boys are so stupid,’ Katara says. Zuko wipes his still-very-damp hair out of his eyes, and wonders if it is an inappropriate time to start steaming the tea out of his clothes before it stains. It might be.

Katara sighs. Then she walks over to the door of the teashop, where it appears Aang has been hovering for the whole conversation.

‘Hey Aang, wanna try going out on a date sometime?’

Aang goes so pink he looks like he might be about to faint.

***

‘We’re obviously going to follow them, right?’ They’re sat down around a table now, Toph opposite Zuko and Suki draped lazily across the chair next to her, her feet resting in Sokka’s lap. Toph is stuffing snacks into her mouth, tea pong game long abandoned, but she still sounds gleeful.

‘That sounds like it could be fun,’ Suki replies, stealing a cookie from Sokka and swallowing it down as he play-whines at her.

‘Absolutely not,’ Sokka says, shuffling the remaining pile of cookies away from Suki’s creeping hands. ‘I refuse. I _will not_ waste my time creeping around Ba Sing Se just so you guys can watch my sister and my best friend making googly-eyes at each other!’

‘They might not go on their date in Ba Sing Se,’ Zuko replies calmly, raising an eyebrow at Sokka.

‘Hmm, that’s a problem,’ Toph says. ‘Good thinking, Zuko! We’re gonna need to steal Appa… maybe for our solo adventure together?’ She sticks out her bottom lip, and even though she’s just teasing, Zuko presses his fingers into his temples.

‘We can’t just _steal Appa_.’

‘We could get him out of the picture?’ Suki says. ‘Maybe give him some of those berries to stain his tongue purple that you told me about?’

‘Suki! Whose side are you on?’ Sokka whines.

‘Toph’s.’

‘Oh.’

Another bitten-back smile. Zuko’s gonna have chapped lips tomorrow, if he keeps this up. What a weird, wonderful life the universe has permitted him to lead.

‘Hey, Zuko?’

Zuko turns round in his chair to see Mai hovering behind him. ‘Hey.’ He gets up. ‘Everything alright?’

‘Yeah, I’m going to turn in for the night. You look like you’re having fun though, so I’ll head back without you.’

Zuko screws up his brow. ‘If this is about our conversation earlier –’

‘It’s not. Not entirely. I, uh – ’

‘Did you end up speaking with Ty Lee?’

‘Yeah, actually. She invited me to come join her at the airship base this weekend. With the rest of the Kyoshi warriors.’

‘Oh! Well, that sounds good?’ The expression on her face gives nothing away. ‘Right?’

‘I cannot think of a single thing I would rather do less,’ she says drily. Zuko cannot tell how much it is supposed to be a joke.

‘Are you going to go?’

She grits her teeth. Not that much of a joke, then. ‘I will. If this is the way to become friends with them, then I should.’

Zuko takes her hand, because he’s not sure what to say to that. Luckily, he doesn’t need to.

‘More tea, Mai?’ Uncle Iroh is somehow between the two of them. ‘I see my nephew has been extraordinarily rude, leaving you without anything to drink for so long.’

‘No, thank you sir, I was just –’

‘ _Iroh_ will do just fine, Mai.’

Mai blanches, just a tiny amount, such that Zuko notices it, but probably nobody else would.

Uncle Iroh does. ‘If I may…’ He seats himself at the nearest table, patting the seat next to him. Mai pauses for a second, before folding herself into the chair awkwardly. Zuko takes the one next to her. ‘You must consider, dear, that to these people, you never showed any desire for Good.’

Mai pauses a second, as if registering what exactly Zuko’s uncle has just said to her. ‘I saved Zuko’s life. Everybody here knows that. Azula could’ve killed me.’

‘And what that says, Mai, is that you love Zuko. But you loved him when he had betrayed the Avatar too, and was living as crown prince of the Fire Nation. Nobody would doubt your affections for my nephew, but that, unfortunately, leads to people being unsure of your true desire to swap sides.’

Zuko shuffles in his chair.

‘But whilst that may be what some of the people in this room think, that would not be entirely correct of them, I believe,’ Uncle Iroh continues, before Mai can interject. ‘Because when you chose Zuko over Azula, you chose love over fear. And that is the beginning of something important.’

‘I’m not sure what your point is,’ she says, and her voice is just one shade off calm and composed.

‘You must leave indifference behind,’ Uncle Iroh says. ‘By inviting you to the airship base, Ty Lee has not offered you a day of friendship with the Kyoshi warriors, but rather a day of working amongst some of the poorest, most hurt people that the war touched. You have lived a privileged, lonely life, behind the walls of palaces. If you are ever to truly gain the trust of this group of friends, you must open up your world, and your love, to the people beyond yourself. You began to do this when you began to love Zuko. Now you must open your heart to the people to whom your own indifference – and the indifference of many within the Fire Nation – has caused pain.’

Mai turns away to stare out of the window, the glittering metropolis beneath the tea shop reflected in her glassy eyes. ‘That sounds hard.’

‘It will be.’

The two exchange a long look, and Zuko finds himself feeling out of place. Not an uncommon feeling for him, but also not one he would’ve expected to feel around his uncle, or Mai.

It’s Mai who breaks the stare, gaze flickering down to her long, elegant fingers. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll try my best, at least. I think I understand what you’re saying.’

‘I’m glad to hear it, Mai.’

A pause. Still looking at her hands. ‘I’ll go now… Iroh. Thank you for speaking with me.’

Mai finally looks up at Zuko, and her expression is even more inscrutable than usual.

‘Goodnight, Firelord.’

‘Night, Mai. You sure you don’t want my company heading back?’

‘Ty Lee is coming with me.’

A pause. Usually this is where they would kiss, but clearly both teenagers are uncomfortable with Uncle Iroh sat across the table from them.

‘Okay. Uh, night then.’

Uncle’s eyebrows are raised. ‘Why don’t you escort the ladies to the door, Zuko?’

Zuko swallows. ‘Yeah. Yeah!’ His hand reaches for Mai’s under the table, and she rolls her eyes, the tense, charged atmosphere finally melting.

Both teenagers smile. ‘C’mon then,’ Mai says.

Zuko steals a quick kiss on the cheek as the pair walk over to where Sokka and Suki are seated, heads close together in some sort of whispered conversation which stops when Suki notices Zuko and Mai.

‘Zuko! Man of the hour!’ Sokka exclaims, ‘Just who I was talking about!’

This throws Zuko off-kilter. ‘What? Really?’

Mai rolls her eyes again. ‘I wanted to say goodnight, Suki. I’ll see you tomorrow?’

Suki, being Suki, makes the smiliest eye-contact Zuko has ever seen. ‘I look forward to it, Mai.’

As if on cue, Ty Lee bounds over, grabbing Mai by the arm. ‘Ready to go, girl?’

Mai nods. She looks tired.

Zuko kinda gets that. Sokka’s still looking at him expectantly – it’s a cute, sharp kinda smile, eyebrows raised, challenging but with laughter looming behind it all. Very Sokka. Zuko feels honoured to have it thrown his way.

Mai is not one step out of the door before Sokka’s expression is explained to him.

‘You’re still training Aang, right?’

‘On occasion.’

‘Well,’ Sokka says, leaping up from his chair and looping an arm around Zuko. ‘I want a Bro Talk. You – you’re my bro. C’mere,’ he reels Zuko in. Zuko blushes.

‘You see, I was thinking, right? You and your blue spirit shtick? Those double swords? That’s the coolest shit I’ve ever seen. You don’t even need to firebend to hold your own in a fight! I respect that so much, and you see –’

He’s tailed off, arm loosened around Zuko, and the jokey, jovial, blissful mood grinds to a halt. Zuko follows Sokka’s gaze, to where Katara is holding something in her hand.

Aang is peering over her shoulder, but Zuko doesn’t notice much besides her expression: pale faced, eyes wide and shocked. Instantly, she’s pacing across the room, over to where Toph sits, calmly sipping at her tea that Uncle has just brought her.

‘Hey Katara!’ Toph says with a smile, as she hears her approach. Aang and Sokka have both moved to follow her, and Zuko trails after. ‘What’s up?’

Whilst she can’t see anyone’s expression, clearly something in the air indicates the shift in mood, because Toph’s smile immediately shifts. She whips around in her seat to face where Katara has come from. ‘Katara?’

‘Toph.’ Katara says, and to his utter shock, Zuko hears a tremble in her voice. ‘Toph, I –’

‘Spit it out, Katara!’

Katara fumbles with what Zuko can now see is a sheet of paper. ‘This letter arrived for you a few days ago. I think nobody really considered the fact that _of course_ you wouldn’t have opened it, and -’

‘What’s in the letter, Katara?’

‘I didn’t mean to open it without your permission, but –’

‘ _What’s in the letter, Katara?_ ’

Katara lets out a long, heavy breath. ‘It’s… it’s from your mother.’


	2. Chapter 2

Zuko doesn’t hear from Toph until they next meet at the _Jasmine Dragon_ on Tuesday.

In the meantime, two things happen: Mai returns from the airbase, and Sokka finally gets to corner Zuko about what he’d been meaning to ask before it all toppled upside-down on Friday.

It’s Saturday morning, and there’s a light breeze rustling through the trees of the palace garden, stippling the surface of the shimmering koi pond and gently playing with the loose ends of Zuko’s untamed hair. He watches the fish drift around, smooth glides of gold and white and red occasionally dropping into shadow as they dip deeper into the water, occasionally breaking through the surface and leaving rippling rings in their wake.

‘Firelord Zuko,’ comes the voice of Asami, one of his attendants. Zuko whips around. ‘Your uh… guest is here?’

Her voice trails off at the end. She’s new to this. Most of the staff of the Fire Palace are.

‘Already?’

Asami nods.

Zuko still isn’t used to having people call on him who aren’t advisors, leaders, great warriors or thinkers or… well, Aang. Who is, if Zuko’s being honest, all of the above.

And his _friend_ , he hears Uncle Iroh’s voice in his head say. Whatever. It’s fine. He’ll revisit that thought later. He has another issue right now.

Which is that Sokka is nearly an hour _early_. Why on earth is he _early_?! Zuko would never have him pegged for the type of guy to turn up on time even, let alone early.

And yet here we are.

By the time that Zuko has retrieved his sword holsters and finished a brief pace around his room to relieve some of the mild stress of having his morning plans disrupted, he heads downstairs to find Sokka draped backwards over one of the plush red sofas in one of the state rooms, sheathing and unsheathing his sword, a bowl of crumbs on the mahogany sidetable next to him.

‘About time, dude!’

Zuko knows what time it is. He’s been checking compulsively. ‘You’re _still_ ten minutes early, even with me having kept you waiting, Sokka.’

Sokka raises an eyebrow. ‘Aren’t I just a man full of surprises! Anyway, whatever! It’s bro sword time, man!’

‘You’re talking like this to purposely wind me up, right?’

‘Is it working?’

‘I mean, I _do_ wanna stab you through the face with both my swords right now, so like, yeah, I guess?’

A giant grin bursts across Sokka’s face, and it lights up the darkened room. ‘Perfect! Where’re we heading? Out into the courtyard? I want you to show me _all_ your coolest moves!’

Zuko raises his eyebrows as Sokka leaps up from the couch, somehow not managing to slice his own arm off with the _unsheathed sword he’s waving about_.

‘Please, I beg you, put that away.’

‘Put what away, Zuko?’

Zuko pulls his mouth tight, but what he finds is that it’s not to express disapproval, but rather to contain the tiny laugh that’s just bubbled up his throat. This is weird.

He heads out into the training courtyard, the late morning brightness flooding his vision after the shadowed halls of the palace. Sokka seems to not notice his blinking, all but skipping next to him as he babbles on about his Friday night after the _Jasmine Dragon_ with the rest of Team Avatar ( _spirits_ , Zuko has to stop thinking of them as that in his head). Apparently, as Zuko had been washing teacups in quiet camaraderie with his uncle, Suki and Toph had been busy teasing Aang and Katara, whilst (as far as Zuko could tell, at least), Sokka had followed them back to Aang’s house with his hands over his ears.

‘How’s Toph actually doing?’ Zuko asks, slightly mortified that that wasn’t the first question off his tongue after Sokka arrived.

Sokka’s shoulders raise, mouth a confused line. ‘Eh. She’s still being very _Toph_. It’s sometimes hard to tell with that girl, y’know?’ Zuko nods enthusiastically. He _does_ know. ‘She can be surprisingly sensitive when anyone else is in trouble, but ask her about herself and-’ Sokka makes a snapping-closed motion with his arms. ‘Like a clam.’

Zuko hums in low agreement, and Sokka turns to face him fully. ‘Y’know, actually, maybe you’re the one best posed to talk to her.’

Zuko chooses not to delve into exactly what reasoning Sokka has for that. ‘I could see that.’ He logs a note of it for later: talk to Toph alone.

‘She keeps asking for her “big solo adventure” with you.’

‘I am well aware.’

Sokka grins. ‘I think it’s cute!’

‘Don’t patronise her too much.’ Zuko smiles at the stones beneath his feet before bringing his smirk up to meet Sokka’s eyes. ‘Besides, I am not only _gracing_ you with my presence for this so-called “bro time”… But you’ve also begged me for sparring practice today. Apparently I’m popular now.’

Sokka smirks back. ‘Must be novel for you.’

‘Oi!’

Sokka grins hard, stepping back across the courtyard, bending into the most half-assed bow Zuko’s ever seen, and ripping his sword back out of its sheath, where it shimmers in the morning sunlight.

Zuko gives the deepest, most shit-eating bow possible whilst also keeping his eyes on Sokka’s sword. Then he lunges forwards, reaching back to grab his swords at the same time.

The boys clash, and the sound of striking metal rings out through the training courtyard.

Sokka and Zuko grin up at each other.

‘Hell yeah,’ Sokka says.

***

Sokka can talk nonsense, and look careless, and he can’t cook for shit, but… well, when he puts his mind to it, he’s not a half-bad fighter.

Sometimes it even makes him shut up. Sometimes.

Zuko wipes the sweat from his brow where it’s threatening to trickle down into his eyes, the now-midday sun pulsing above them and adding still more heat to the clashing, the reverberating slick slide of metal blades coming together and the grunts of the men wielding them. Zuko realises he doesn’t think of himself as a man all that often. Sometimes in the soft moments as the sun sets with Mai, sometimes heading up a throne room alongside Aang. And apparently here, stripped of his bending, facing off against a guy who he couldn’t possibly respect more.

For Sokka to be competent enough to hold his own against Zuko – and Zuko doesn’t intend to be patronising – impresses him. As the Blue Spirit he was able to go against the whole Fire Nation. For the longest time, Zuko considered his Blue Spirit skills to be what made him different, what held him away from the danger and bloodlust of his people. Until Iroh had taught him how that wasn’t all that firebending had to represent.

That’s his job now. To help the rest of the Fire Nation realise that. “Change their culture,” Sokka had called it. A job that fills him with terror, and pride when Uncle compliments him, and warmth when Aang is there to help him. A job for someone who never, not entirely, needed his firebending.

Sokka doesn’t need bending either. He asked Zuko for sparring lessons, but he’s not far behind. Zuko watches him, observes what he could advise, but he’s mostly filled to the throat with a gush of compliments and happiness. The way Sokka’s brow folds in when he concentrates, the corner of his mouth lilts up when he edges past Zuko’s defence, and finally his grace in defeat – all Zuko can think is that he wants it all, and more.

 _Friendship_. His Uncle’s voice never leaves his head these days.

Zuko holds out his hand and Sokka takes it, pulling himself up from the ground with a clumsy grin. ‘Pisses me off how good you are.’

‘Oh. Really?’

Sokka punches him in the arm. ‘No, dumbass. It’s amazing. I really respect that you honed a skill that well when you always had your bending to fall back on.’

‘Not always.’ He thinks of long days alone in green cloaks and hoods.

‘Not always,’ Sokka nods, grin softening. He sheaths his sword, looking up at Zuko questioningly.

‘I respect you too, Sokka.’

After all the noise of their sparring session, the courtyard echoes with quietness again, a gentle breeze disrupting the leaves in the trees above them, some sort of bird up on the black roof of the palace trilling out a midday song.

‘Thanks, dude. You know anywhere good round here where we can get some lunch?’

Zuko grins. ‘Oh boy, do I.’

And so before long, the two of them are poring over the menu at the backstreet hole-in-the-wall that Zuko would occasionally frequent whenever he wanted nobody to ask questions, the place where you can get the best spicy noodles in the entire Capital, but also a place he’s never shared with anybody before.

Sokka looks up from the menu. ‘When they say “hot”, do they –’

‘Blistering pain.’

‘Mild?’

‘Sliiiiight tongue-on-fire.’

Sokka gulps, a comical, over-the-top gulp for Zuko’s benefit.

‘So when you’re showing off to the ladies –’

Zuko laughs. ‘You think I’d bring Mai here?’ He gestures around himself at the basic, low tables and stuffy ambiance and intimidating clientele. ‘It wouldn’t be my _first_ choice for a date!’

Sokka looks up from the menu, ear-to-ear grin, eyebrow raised. ‘You need to be more adventurous.’

‘I’m not taking _girl advice_ from you, Sokka!’

‘Why not? I’m a romantic!’

Zuko rolls his eyes. ‘A romantic.’

‘My first girlfriend turned into the _moon_!’

‘We’ve been over this, buddy. I sympathise, but –’

‘I’ll have the _Extra Hot_ ,’ Sokka cuts through Zuko, smiling up innocently at the disgruntled-looking waiter who’s appeared over Zuko’s shoulder.

‘You’ll regret that, North-Pole-boy.’

Sokka pouts. ‘Won’t.’

‘Last chance to back out?’

Sokka merely folds his arms, looking at Zuko challengingly.

‘Fine,’ Zuko sighs, turning to face the waiter. ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’

The server rolls his eyes at Zuko before slouching back off towards the counter. The café feels full due to its cramped-ness, each of the four tables attended by men older than them. In front of Zuko is a surprisingly well-dressed pair who had been hunched over their drinks chatting rapidly until hearing Zuko order. One of them had turned round to look at him, shot a not-at-all-surreptitious glance to his partner, and is now lounging overly lazily and making loud conversation about a good experience at the local blacksmith.

Sometimes, it sucks being a prince. No, wait. A Firelord. That’s still taking some getting used to.

To his other side, there’s an ancient-looking man, face turtle-y and folding in on itself, slowly slurping away at what looks like the hottest possible flavour of noodles and yet not even breaking a sweat. Behind a door at the back is a clattering from the kitchen, and Zuko can hear people walk past the gloomy windows, and the distant, quavering strains of a musician on the square a few streets over.

His fingers rap against the table, which is very clean, at least.

‘Are you actually uncomfortable with Aang asking out Katara?’

Sokka’s expression betrays just a second of shock before he irons it back out into a jovial smirk. ‘Ugh, don’t make me _think_ about it! Why’d’you ask?’

Zuko tilts his head to one side. ‘Nobody else has.’

Sokka shrugged. ‘Aang’s a big boy. He doesn’t need my permission. And Katara certainly doesn’t.’

Zuko smiles. ‘Sounds like Suki’s been getting to you.’

A slight inflection of his brow. ‘Suki might’ve been the first one to. But I like to think I’ve matured of my own accord since then!’

‘Still macho enough that you ordered food you’re gonna find inedible though, right?’

Sokka snorts. ‘If it’s so spicy, why’d you get it too?’

Zuko feels the grin stretch right across his face. ‘I like some heat.’

The boys both giggle, and then Sokka leans back on his chair, the back legs creaking dangerously.

‘I’m happy for them. I think it was inevitable, honestly. Though I wouldn’t have expected it all to be quite so comical. Seeing Katara drenching you in tea like that really scratched an itch I never knew I had!’

‘You want me to beat you to the floor in a sword fight again, Sokka?’

Another laugh. ‘But nah. It feels natural. Nothing weird about it. I just –’

‘Mmm?’

Sokka looks away. ‘Nah, it’s cool.’

‘Sokka.’

‘Ugh, now I’m gonna _have_ to say, or you’ll assume it’s this huge big deal.’ Sokka pulls at the hem of his shirt. ‘It’s stupid, y’know? But for so long it was… just the three of us. And obviously now that dynamic’s gonna change, and so I…’

‘You’re not sure where you’ll fit in?’ Zuko feels a pang.

‘Yeah. Pretty much that. Like, if it works out, do I become a third wheel? And… well, I hate to say it, but like, what if it doesn’t? Is it gonna ruin our friendship? I dunno.’ He sucks in a breath. ‘Thank the Spirits you and Toph and always around, too.’

‘And Suki and Mai and Ty Lee and all the others,’ Zuko adds with a smile.

Sokka lets out a little puff of laughter. ‘Yeah. You’re right.’ His eyes meet Zuko’s. ‘We’re so lucky, aren’t we, to have such a cool group of friends.’

Sokka keeps babbling about the gang, but Zuko can’t concentrate, the air once more knocked from his lungs as if he’d been hit in the chest with the blunt end of Sokka’s sword. To be included so casually. After everything. Zuko remains warm and defocused and swimming in a low, confused euphoria for the rest of the conversation until their food arrives.

The arrival of the waiter, and the hilarity of Sokka’s trepidation, however, pulls him out of it.

‘Go on then, Fire Boy,’ Sokka says as the steaming bowls of food are placed in front of them. ‘You first.’

Zuko grins, taking a huge forkful of food and cramming it in his mouth, eyebrows raised. It’s too spicy for lunchtime, really – he usually goes for _Hot_ , not _Extra Hot_ , but it’s nothing he can’t handle.

‘Delicious,’ he says, once he’s swallowed. Sokka is staring at him intently to see if he’s lying. He won’t find any lies here, Zuko thinks smugly. He adores this place. Best noodles in the city. Sokka’s in for a treat.

Or he would’ve been, if he’d not been such a show-off.

After about ten glasses of milk, Sokka’s eyes have stopped running enough to stare at Zuko, who is happily slurping away at his noodles.

‘How can you – what are you – _what_??’

‘Welcome to the Fire Nation,’ Zuko snorts.

‘I hate you,’ Sokka growls.

Zuko shrugs. ‘Heard that enough times.’

Sokka narrows his (still-damp) eyes. ‘Spirits. Why are you so funny? I swear, if you come for my crown as comedy king –’

‘Never gonna happen, don’t you worry.’

A laugh. ‘Fine.’ He pushes the bowl away from himself. ‘You want these? I’m gonna try the mild ones.’

Zuko grins. ‘Sure.’

‘Today’s been fun.’

‘Yes!’

‘You free next weekend?’

***

The sky is once more a burning, searing, sunset red when Asami knocks on the room of his private quarters that evening. Zuko throws aside the letters from the Southern Water Tribe he’d been reading through in preparation for his meeting next week, pulling himself up from the wide, west-facing windowsill he likes to sit on, and straightening his clothes as he stumbles over to the door.

‘Firelord Zuko. It’s, uh, Mai?‘

‘Hi,’ comes a dry voice from somewhere behind her.

Zuko feels some of the tension drain from his shoulders. ‘Thanks, Asami. You can leave us be for the evening, now. Take some, um, time off?’

From behind Asami, Zuko can see Mai roll her eyes.

As she scurries off, Mai’s bemused expression lengthens into a sarcastic smile. ‘You’ve had people waiting on you your whole life. Why all the stammering these days?’

Zuko shrugs, turning back into the room and holding the door wider for her. ‘Not all my life.’

She turns to face him, running a hand across his shoulders. Zuko realises she looks tired – there’s a weariness behind her eyes that isn’t usually there. Usually she’s dry, or bored, or sarcastic, but it’s almost always with a bright, alert spark to it.

‘Long day?’

‘Spirits, yes.’

‘Come and sit down with me.’

Mai never picks Zuko’s favourite windowsill to sit on – instead, she lounges in the plush red sofa on the other side of the room. Zuko sits beside her, letting her weight rest just slightly on his shoulder, testing her mood by running his fingers gently through her shiny, silky hair. She sighs.

‘Tell me about it?’

‘Still gathering myself. Why don’t you give me the rundown on your date with Mr. Dudebro this morning, that might cheer me up.’ She smirks up at him, and Zuko laughs softly, filled with a happy warmth.

‘I actually had a really good time,’ Zuko replies, fingers combing absently again through her locks. ‘We make a good team, I think. I mean, we’ve known that since boiling rock,’ he meets her eyes shyly, and she looks away, the barest hint of a smile at the edge of her lips. ‘But it’s weird, because, even with absolutely no stakes… he, well, he seemed like he was having a good time.’

‘So what you’re saying is that you hung out with a friend, and you had fun, and this was some big revelation to you.’

An awkward puff of laughter. ‘Kinda.’

Mai rolls her eyes again, but she’s staring at her fingers, twisting and untwisting them in her lap. ‘Spirits, we’re screwed up when it comes to making friends.’

Zuko closes his eyes for a second. When he opens them again, Mai is staring up at him. He reaches out a hand to rest on hers, and her fingers stop their restless fidgeting, settling into peace under him.

‘You know what couples do though? We support each other.’

‘Is this you asking me to tell you about my day at the airbase now?’

Zuko grins. ‘If you want to?’

Mai pulls herself up into a position where she can better face Zuko.

A long, deep breath in. ‘It was hell. Everyone is suffering so badly, still. They just wanna get home. And the Kyoshi warriors, and all the other people who work there, they’re absolutely rushed off their feet. And Ty Lee told me that today was a _quiet_ day, that the numbers are _lower_ than they were!’ She sucks in another deep breath, breaking eye contact with Zuko. ‘And yet, it felt like I couldn’t take a break, because there was constantly stuff to do – people to lead onto the ships or medical staff to fetch or towels to wash or lost children to locate. And the whole morning I was thinking _Spirits, I’ve made a mistake coming here_ because it wasn’t even like I was getting to bond with the girls, I barely even saw them. I mean, Ty Lee basically introduced me to everyone and then Suki gave me orders every now and then, but mostly? I was with the passengers, not the girls. And then, when I was getting kinda mad, actually, I…’ Zuko feels her clench her hands together. ‘I remembered what your Uncle said. About how I was there to understand the people. And, Spirits, it made it even worse in a way. Because the more I listened to them, instead of just running errands, the more they became… people? And all I could think was _I could not have your life_ , that I could not do any of the things they do.’

‘You’ve done some amazing things.’ Zuko says, nudging her chin back upwards so she’s looking at him again.

‘Sure,’ Mai replies. ‘And I thought I was special. But _every single one of these people_ has also been through so much, and what do they have to show for it? Not a palace and a sofa to lounge on and a gorgeous boyfriend to hold hands with. They have no home and ill or dead children and this deep-rooted, almost intrinsic _fear_ of fire.’

‘Did you say any of this to Ty Lee or the others?’

Mai shakes her head. ‘I had to leave straight away when my shift ended. I was just… really… confused, I guess. My head is still a bit shakey. I think Ty Lee noticed, but I didn’t want Suki or the others to… I don’t know, think even worse of me? Like some stuck up palace princess who can’t handle the real world.’

Zuko lets out a sad laugh. ‘I don’t think they would’ve thought that.’

Mai shrugs. ‘I have no idea what they’d have thought.’ Her gaze drifts over to the blood-red sunset. ‘But I wanted to talk to you first. I…’ More fidgeting. ‘I want to help.’

‘At the airbase? You’re going back?’

‘No – I mean, yes, actually, I did agree to go back – but that’s not what I meant. I meant, I want to help you. Yesterday, at the _Jasmine Dragon_ , you talked about feeling overwhelmed with all the things you want to fix?’

Zuko knows his eyes widen in silence, but he doesn’t speak. Mai continues her gush.

‘This afternoon, when I was talking to all these people, I couldn’t help but realise how enormous a job that is. I _get_ why you’re so overwhelmed. To some extent, at least. So if we’re going to be together, I want to be here for you too. To understand more. You’ve experienced a lot more of the world outside palace walls than I have. So doing this? It’s not just going to be for me, or even for the individual people I help. I want to learn more so that I can help _you_ too, because what you do will affect so, so many people.’

‘I… Mai.’

He doesn’t know what words to use, so he just pulls her into a hug. The two teens relax in each others arms, and Zuko just hopes she understands how much he appreciates her.

***

‘That’s Zuko!’ Toph yells as Zuko walks out of the kitchen of the _Jasmine Dragon_ on Tuesday. He doesn’t have long to register until her tiny frame is barrelling into him, enclosing him in a hug. ‘Now the whole date-stalking gang are here!’

Uncle Iroh, stood to Zuko’s left, raises an eyebrow. He mouths the words: _Date stalking_?

Zuko shrugs. Toph has already clasped his hand in hers, dragging him over to a table at the other end of the room at which Sokka and Suki are already sitting. She might be tiny, but she’s strong, and Zuko doesn’t really want to resist that much anyway.

‘Uh, Toph?’

‘Mm?’

‘I was wondering if you wanted to talk about that letter from your mother at any point?’

Toph slows her dragging, staring at the wall to her side. ‘Katara tried to have a bit of a one-to-one with me,’ she said slowly. ‘It was kinda awful. I dunno, she means well. But Katara and I really… we really don’t have the same parental experiences, so to say.’

Zuko gives her hand a squeeze. ‘I don’t want to pressure anything. But just say the word, and I’m here to talk.’

Zuko can see a nervous smile creep onto her face. ‘Thanks, man. Not right now, but… not never, I think? Thank you.’ And then the moment is over, and she’s back to her usual mischievous grin. ‘But for now? Hey, Sokka, Suki, look who I’ve got!’

‘Oh, _brilliant_ ,’ Sokka whines as Suki claps her hands together in excitement, ‘everyone’s a creep!’

‘A creep?’ Zuko asks.

‘Spying on my sister and Aang, dummy.’

Aah, so that’s what this is about. Zuko realises he’s sometimes a little slow on the uptake.

‘Katara and I had a bit of a girly night on Sunday,’ Suki says conspiratorially. ‘And she let slip that her and Aang were going to “hang out in Ba Sing Se” sometime in the coming week!’

‘Sometime this week?’ Zuko parrots.

‘Yeah. So we need your big brain to help figure out when. Sokka says –’

‘Sokka can speak for himself!’

‘Go on then!’ Suki pokes Sokka on the nose, and he blushes a violent red. It’s a good job Toph is blind, for Sokka’s sake. She’d never let him live things like that down.

‘Okay, so,’ he starts. ‘ _Not_ that I want to be involved in this. But sometimes Suki… well, lets just say she’s good at convincing.’ Toph pulls a face. Sokka blushes again. Zuko stares into the middle distance. Suki coughs. ‘Right. Yeah. What I’m tryna say is that Katara and I aren’t out working on Thursday or Friday, because the Fire Nation school are loaning Appa for Animal Awareness Week, or something.’

‘Ergo…’ Suki interrupts excitedly. ‘Their date has gotta be on Thursday or Friday!’

Zuko nods along. He already knows about the stuff with Appa – he and Aang have been working with the school. He smiles as he realises, however, that he has some prime information to share. The letters he spent all weekend pouring over resurface in his mind.

‘Aang and I are meeting with the leaders of the Southern Water Tribe on Friday.’

Toph punches the air. ‘Bingo!’

Suki is also grinning. ‘Everyone up for a bit of stalking our friends on Thursday?’

Really, Zuko should be spending his Thursday working – focussing on the documents for his important meeting, assembling what he wants to say, speaking with the palace staff about how to make his guests comfortable.

But then again, it doesn’t seem like Aang is going to be doing too much work on Thursday. Maybe he can follow his lead? Zuko respects Aang more than anyone else (well, maybe his Uncle). Is it possible that a fun day with – and the thought makes him gulp a shot of suddenly too-hot tea – his _friends_ would be a bad thing after all?

When Zuko looks up from his steaming, bubbling teacup, he realises all three of the others are staring at him.

‘Please, somebody, I’m begging you to describe the expression on Zuko’s face right now,’ Toph says, ‘because I can feel him panic-bending his tea, and I _know_ that it’s gotta be hilarious.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter wasn’t particularly plot-heavy, but since I spent a lot of chapter 1 setting off the various plot threads, I wanted to use this chapter to delve a bit deeper into some of the relationships and zuko’s response to them. next chapter we’ll see a lot more of toph, aang and katara – it’s time for their date! and also zuko and toph have a solo adventure to plan!! 
> 
> I’m excited – I hope you are too. I’m finding a:tla fic so enjoyable and soothing to write lately
> 
> zelda <3


	3. Chapter 3

Uncle Iroh is washing the teacups, Zuko is drying. They aren’t talking – it’s a bubble of quiet content away from the riotous centre of the tearoom. The shouts of the tea-pong game (Katara and Suki vs. Aang and Sokka) puncture through the thin walls well enough, and every now and then, between the light crockery clinks as he puts cups away, Zuko finds himself smiling at a miserable yell from Sokka as he misses, a teasing taunt from Katara, a defensive “No, I didn’t bend it! I’m just a great shot!” from Aang.

Zuko catches Uncle Iroh smiling to himself too, as he drains the leaves from a pretty cast-iron teakettle with the gentleness of a parent.

‘Zuko? You in here?’

Zuko turns to the door. Toph’s voice is almost timid, her black hair falling into her eyes as she leans round the doorframe.

‘Yeah. Me and Uncle –’

‘Yeah yeah, I got that,’ she rushes, flicking the hair back from her face and apparently recovering from the momentary shyness. ‘Can we talk, Zuko?’

Uncle Iroh places the teakettle gently down. ‘Would you like some privacy, Toph?’

Toph scratches her chin as she lifts herself to sit on the table. ‘Nah, you’re good. You’re smarter than Zuko anyway.’

Zuko pouts, putting down the teacups.

‘You can keep doing that,’ Toph interrupts. ‘Don’t want – I don’t like, y’know, a Katara-style sit down with gushy feelings and whatnot. Just wanna talk, whilst those idiots are throwing ping pong balls about.’

Zuko snorts, but he does as he’s told, picking the towel back up and taking the teakettle from his uncle.

‘The letter, then.’ Toph says slowly. ‘From my mother.’

Zuko hums, a gentle _go on_.

‘Yeah. She, uh. She wants to see me. She heard about the role I played. What I did. Apparently…’ Toph’s voice gets quiet, as though she’s struggling to get the rest of the sentence out. ‘Apparently, she… she wants to try and see me as I am. Accept me… as I am. But also her daughter. Dad’s not ready yet, apparently, but…’ Zuko glances at Toph. She’s flipped her hair in front of her eyes again, shoulders hunched as she faces down at the floor. ‘I dunno. Guess I can’t fight it. She’s travelling to Ba Sing Se this Sunday, apparently.’

Zuko nearly drops the damned teakettle. ‘So soon?’

‘Yeah,’ Toph sighs. ‘Thank the spirits that Katara read the letter when she did, hey?’

‘Are you going to meet her?’

Toph shrugs. ‘I guess. I dunno. She wants to make amends, I guess? But it’s so… this is my life. I left the old version of my life behind when I ran away from Gaoling. So to bring it back here… to have her here…’ she shrugs again. ‘I can’t just have her come to my house and tell me to tidy my room and straighten my hair, you know?’

‘Would she do that?’

Toph shrugs. Zuko turns slightly to his uncle, catching his purposely neutral expression in the corner of his eye.

‘I wonder…’ he says. ‘I wonder, Uncle, if we could maybe invite her here?’

‘On Sunday?’

Zuko nods rapidly, adding a ‘yes’ out loud.

Uncle Iroh raises an eyebrow. ‘The _Jasmine Dragon_ is open for regular service on Sundays, Zuko.’

‘I know that! But, well, why not do something for all our customers? If Poppy Beifong is just one of the customers, it means it’s less-’ he turns to Toph, ‘-less stressful for you, maybe? I mean, I wouldn’t want to presume…’

He trails off when he realises Toph is smiling at him. ‘What’ve you got in mind?’

Zuko turns back to his uncle in a flurry, but the calm, warm expression on his face helps to ground him. ‘I don’t know, uh, some sort of tea festival, perhaps?’

‘Every day is a tea festival at the _Jasmine Dragon_ ,’ Uncle Iroh says, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

Zuko rolls his eyes. ‘Yeah, yeah. We all know that. But perhaps we could celebrate a certain local tea, or something? I don’t know, is there any kind of special tea that’s seasonal right now?’

Uncle Iroh’s eyes twinkle. ‘Well, now that you mention it… There’s a very specific type of Pu’er tea I haven’t tasted for many years.’

Toph jumps up. ‘Why, is it rare? We can do rare! I’m up for an adventure!’

‘Of sorts. It comes from mixing Máochá with the Laghima leaf, which I believe only grows – or grew, for I haven’t come across it in many years – near the Northern Air Temple.’

Zuko briefly mulls this over. ‘That’s not too far from here. We could always take Appa.’

Toph cringes. ‘I finally get a solo mission with you, and it’s in the _sky_? What are the odds of that?’

Uncle Iroh chuckles. ‘Well. If you were to retrieve a few leaves from this plant, I believe it might be cause for a small celebration. Pu’er tea needs to be fermented, so we wouldn’t be able to taste it this Sunday, but we could certainly begin the process. I don’t see why we couldn’t make quite the annual event of it.’

‘Really?’ Toph is fizzing, and it sends swells of warmth through Zuko.

‘You up for that, Toph?’

‘ _Am I_!?’ There’s the tiniest little excited rumble beneath their feet, and Uncle Iroh clings to his teakettle in horror. Zuko feels a wicked grin stretch across his face.

‘Okay. Shall we go on Saturday? Appa will be busy at the Fire Nation school on Thursday and Friday, but I think we can ask Aang about – ’

‘Ask Aang what?’ says the guy himself, bounding round the door, eyes wide and inquisitive.

‘Hey, Twinkletoes! I’m finally getting my solo adventure with Zuko!’ Toph says gleefully.

‘Aw, nice!’

‘Yeah,’ Zuko agrees, smiling at Aang. ‘We wanted to know if we could borrow Appa on Saturday?’

Aang nods sagely. ‘Well, you’ll have to ask him himself, of course. But I don’t think he’s doing anything particular!’

All three of the teens grin at each other. ‘So, what’s this plan, anyway?’

‘We’re going to go and collect a fancy tea that Zuko’s Uncle wants!’

Aang raises an eyebrow. ‘Huh, sure sounds… interesting.’

Zuko laughs. ‘We’re getting it so we can throw a kinda-party on Sunday.’

‘A party! Now _that’s_ more like it! Can I organise a dance? I love a dance! Iroh, can we dance?’

Uncle Iroh sighs. ‘I suppose I don’t see why not.’

Aang throws himself into a tiny, excited backflip. ‘Yippee! Come on, Toph, are you up for the next round of tea pong? I just lost to Suki and Katara, but it was all Sokka’s fault, so I was wondering if you wanted to sub in in his place?’ Toph smiles gently. ‘Or… am I interrupting something?’

Toph shakes her head. ‘Nah, you’re good. Zuko’s… Zuko’s actually really helped. I think I just needed to talk a bit. Get my thoughts out. And now that we’ve got the start of a plan, I’m feeling a lot more positive!’

‘I’m really glad to hear that, Toph,’ says Zuko.

She nods happily.

‘Well,’ Aang says, ‘I have almost no idea what you two are talking about, but I’m glad that you’re feeling happy too! A happy Toph is a good tea-pong player!’

Toph grins an evil grin. ‘I’m undefeatable at that game, and you know it.’

Zuko snorts.

Aang said he had no idea what they were talking about, but as he leads Toph out of the room, the soft smile he shoots back at Zuko hints that maybe he has a slightly better perception of what Zuko’s done than he said out loud.

Uncle Iroh doesn’t say anything out loud, either, but Zuko’s getting better at the unsaid. The way that his uncle buzzes with pride and warmth is almost palpable, and it makes Zuko buzz too.

***

‘I can’t _believe_ I’ve been roped into this,’ Sokka whines.

It’s 11 in the morning, and the sun is beating down onto the cobbled streets of Ba Sing Se with a heavy persistence. Zuko shoots Sokka a look, recalling their conversation in the noodle café at the weekend, and Sokka smiles softly back.

‘Let me have my fun, Fire Boy.’

Zuko rolls his eyes.

‘Oh my spirits!’ Suki suddenly whisper-squeals, slapping her hand across Sokka’s mouth, ‘Boys! Shut up! They’re here!’

‘Ohh, I can feel them,’ Toph whispers, grin lengthening across her cheeks. ‘Aang is all light and fluttery; does he look nervous?’

‘Mmfmmgh,’ Sokka says, nodding enthusiastically behind Suki’s hand. A crazed snort of laughter erupts from Zuko, somewhat without his permission, and Suki whips round to glare at him. It’s mostly jokey. Mostly. Zuko shrugs in apology but can’t help biting down hard on his smile to try and keep more giggles back. What’s got over him?

He turns away from Sokka and Suki, instead dipping around Suki’s shoulder to peer into the cobbled street. Whilst Suki had shepherded the “date-stalking gang” behind the yellowy sandstone of a nearby alleyway, softening them in the light morning shadows, Aang and Katara are swamped in the throbbing sunlight, both looking a little sweaty, walking a little fast, and keeping just a little too much distance between them both for it to look natural.

Zuko tries to stifle another amused snort. ‘Oh no,’ he whispers, biting down again on his lip. ‘I haven’t seen two people so uncomfortable on a date since the last time _I_ tried to take out a girl.’

‘One day I will make you spill the details of you and this Jin,’ Sokka mutters, and Zuko feels his cheeks warm. ‘What? You know all _my_ sordid relationship history!’

Suki rolls her eyes. ‘Only because you never shut up about anything, babe.’

‘What can I say. I’m a giver.’

‘ _Spirits_ , you’re giving, alright!’ Toph groans. ‘Giving me a headache!’

Suki emits a low giggle before sliding between Sokka and Zuko and slipping her arms over their shoulders. ‘Toph has a point, boys,’ she says, either unaware or unbothered by Zuko’s now burning face, ‘they’re getting away!’

Toph has already strutted out into the road, and Sokka jumps forward to hold her by the shoulders. ‘Hang on there, midget. Aang is fidgety beyond belief – one look behind and he’d spot you right now!’

‘Oh, like _you’re_ being so stealth? Mistake me if you’ve just spent the last ten minutes loudly flirting?’ She bends the cobbles up under one of his feet and his whole lanky frame goes crashing to the floor.

Sokka hums thoughtfully, apparently unaware of the fact he’s now sprawled on the cobblestones. ‘Good point, Toph. Suki has brainwashed me. I don’t even wanna be here! You walk out in the road all you want!’

Zuko stretches out a hand to Sokka, shrugging Suki off his shoulders and grinning. ‘Get up, idiot.’ Sokka takes his hand, and Zuko looks to Suki and Toph as he pulls Sokka up. ‘Are we following them, then?’

‘How are you all so intellectually bereft?’ Toph moans. ‘Yes. Yes, we are following them. I thought you were on our side here, Zuko! Is Suki my only ally?’

Zuko smirks. ‘You may consider me an ally, Toph. Let’s go.’

The round the bend, keeping distance between them and the world’s most awkward date, who are clearly heading towards the food market in the middle ring.

It’s unclear who’s leading the way – Aang is babbling, motioning at all sorts of things on the street (a cool bird on the city wall, an interesting shop, the old man playing the pipes near the fountain), but his steps are drifty, almost directionless. Katara however is weirdly quiet. Zuko can’t _quite_ tell, but her jaw looks like it might be clenched. Every now and then, she will flash a look at Aang, who is decidedly not looking at her, and then fiddle with her hair loopies.

It’s excruciating.

‘Hey, Katara,’ Aang says eventually, playing with the hem of his robe. His face is a warm flush that definitely isn’t just from the heat of the day. ‘I, uh, think it’s this way?’

Katara stalls in her tracks, blinking at Aang for a few seconds before looking at the turn-off he’s pointing down. She blinks again. ‘You’re right.’ A dark blush floods across her face. ‘Sorry!’

Ah, so Katara’s been the one leading the way. Poorly, apparently.

Both of them stand there for a second, flushed, fumbling. Aang’s arm twitches, and then he sucks in a deep, steadying breath, before reaching out, offering his hand.

Katara blinks again. Aang’s eyes betray his nervousness. Katara bites her lip, then grabs his hand.

They look at each other, still just standing in the middle of the road, before dissolving simultaneously into nervous giggles.

‘Is this weird? Am I being weird? I feel like I’m being weird,’ Aang burbles.

‘No, no, it’s me too, I’m just nervous and I feel like there’s an expectation to –’ Katara says at the same time.

They both draw to a halt, before grinning and falling into laughter again. It’s a bit more natural, though, this time.

‘C’mon, you,’ Katara says at last, with a gentle roll of her eyes. ‘Let’s go to the market – the _right_ way!’

Aang nods enthusiastically, head bobbing happily, and the pair turn down the sidestreet that leads to the Ba Sing Se market.

The market is huge, bustling for a weekday although not the level of the unyielding throngs of a weekend. Whoever suggested this as a date made a good choice, because it’s a lively, pleasant atmosphere. With the sun beating down, the air is filled with the sounds of laughter and chatter, the calls of the stall owners beckoning over potential customers, the scent of every type of cuisine imaginable mingling in a fascinating, enticing way.

‘So, there’s a stall I wanted to take you to,’ Aang says, and the shyness is creeping back, colouring his cheeks as he dips his eyes away from Katara.

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah, down here.’ Aang starts to head down into the thicket of stalls, Katara’s hand still in his. She stumbles to keep up, Aang rushing forwards.

‘This is causing me physical pain,’ Suki mutters.

‘Same. Though it’s all entirely secondhand embarrassment,’ Zuko replies as the four of them creep along a parallel line of stalls, Katara and Aang’s heads bobbing along to their left.

‘Speak for yourself,’ Toph says gleefully. ‘This is hilarious! I’m _so_ glad we followed them!’

Eventually, Aang stops, half-dragging Katara over to a baby-pink coloured stall, awning fluttering. By turning to face the stallkeeper, Aang and Katara are facing the direction of their stalkers, and Suki and Zuko drag Sokka and Toph down to the floor in a panic. Toph giggles.

‘I really am having the best time. You guys are hilarious.’

Sokka shakes his head, but it’s fond, and Zuko finds himself smiling yet again. He can’t help but realise he’s having fun too (even if the ethics of its origin are… somewhat questionable.)

‘I can’t make out what they’re saying now,’ Suki says through a pout.

‘I can,’ Toph says. ‘What? Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean I’m deaf!’

Zuko strains his ears over the racket of the market, and he can just about make out what’s going on as well.

‘These are the best snowy mooncakes in the entire Earth Kingdom,’ Aang is saying.

‘Snowy mooncakes?’

A pause. Zuko wishes he could see their expressions to figure out what’s happening, so he raises his head, just a little, so that he can peep through the wooden stand they’re crouching behind.

Aang is staring at Katara in surprise, and she’s shrugging, almost defensive. ‘What?’

‘You don’t know what snowy mooncakes are? Snow-skin mooncakes? Surely you’ve –’

‘We’ve not all been alive as long as you have, Aang!’

Aang droops a little. Not for long though, as he seems to mentally shake himself. He casts a glance at the stall keeper, who is gazing at them quizzically, before turning back to Katara. ‘Snowy mooncakes are great,’ he says, and then a blush fills his face. ‘And, uh, well they kinda made me think of you, since you come from the snow, and that’s where we met, and stuff…’

Katara’s cheeks bloom pink. The pair shuffle awkwardly for a second.

‘So, uh, there’s loads of flavours, right?’ He turns to the stall owner and smiles brightly. ‘Hi Tinashe, I’m back!’

‘Hello, Aang!’

Aang waves at Katara. ‘This is Katara, and she’s never had snow-skin mooncakes before!’

The stall-owner – Tinashe, apparently – has her back to where Zuko is crouching, so he can’t see her expression, but she sounds kindly. ‘Well, we have plenty of flavours to choose from. Here, child, come and have a look.’

Zuko crouches back down to join the others as Aang and Katara _ooh_ and _ahh_ over the selection of different piles of little round cakes.

Sokka opens his mouth, and Zuko can only assume to make some absolutely awful joke, when he’s cut off by a loud screeching from across the other side of the market.

‘Oh my spirits, it’s the _Avatar_!’

‘Here, in the middle ring!’

‘Is he with that water tribe girl?’

‘Oh my Spirits, Avatar Aang, can I get an autograph?’

Zuko looks to the rest of the gang – every one of them has a slightly differing expression of cringe on their faces.

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened – hell, Toph’s had fans for years, since she was so popular as the Blind Bandit. Zuko, too, knows what fame feels like, although his never felt like this – it was always in the form of glances sliding away from him, widening eyes and mutters behind hands. He had always enjoyed seeing Wanted posters for the Blue Spirit, but it was hardly ever something that garnered him crowds of adoring fans.

Suki is usually immune, considering how different she looks outside of her Kyoshi makeup, but Sokka’s been getting more of it lately too. As has Zuko. Whilst Toph generally manages pretty well with random people approaching her for compliments, Zuko and Sokka have struggled. Sokka ends up puffing himself up like a peacock at the attention, usually saying something incomprehensibly embarrassing, and curling up in horror the instant the interaction is over. Zuko, used to the trepidation that accompanies infamy, and certainly not the popularity of being a member of the Avatar’s inner circle, tends to blush, stumble, stutter.

However, it’s not often too much of a problem for any of them. Because usually, when it happens, it’s because they’re with Aang. And usually, when they’re with Aang, that’s who the fans are there for.

As is the case now. Zuko peers back over the wooden beams, and sees a small gaggle of girls jostling Katara out of the way so that they can chirp at Aang, who is smiling graciously, shoulders back in the proudest display of confidence Zuko has seen from him all day.

‘That’s right,’ he’s saying, answering something Zuko didn’t hear. ‘One of the proudest moments I’ve ever…’

Zuko turns his attention to Katara. Zuko can’t hear it, but he sees her chest and shoulders rise and fall in a heavy sigh, her attention sliding away from Aang and his fans to flit around the other stalls. Zuko dips his head back down, recognising her wandering attention as a risk.

Suki’s teeth are pressed together, mouth stretched out in an expression of pure cringe. Beside her, Toph has her eyebrows raised in exasperation.

‘He’s _so_ much more confident with those random girls than he is with Katara,’ Toph sniggers. ‘Oh man, I almost feel bad. This is so cursed.’

‘ _Almost_ ,’ Sokka parrots. ‘Ever the sympathetic one, you are, Toph.’

Zuko automatically brushes Toph’s arm in response to that, his mind thinking back to a darkened night at the Western Air Temple, Toph being the first to try to speak with him, his terrified burning response.

Toph’s response is an almost-imperceptible nod.

‘Hey Toph,’ Zuko mutters, as Sokka and Suki continue to discuss the mess that is this date. ‘You wanna plan Saturday’s mission when we get some time?’

Her expression lilts up into a rare, genuine Toph-smile. Zuko is once more a flickering warmth of happiness.

‘Yeah,’ she says. ‘It’s gonna be great! I’ve already got so many ideas.’

Zuko chuckles. ‘Oh, Spirits. Am I doomed?’

Toph hums. ‘You’d best be excited, Fire Lord.’

Zuko laughs again, and then both of them are jolted back to the pressing issue of the moment, because Suki has grabbed them both by the shoulders.

‘End of this little pow-wow, now!’ She hisses. ‘Listen!’

‘…is Katara’, Aang is saying. ‘She helped, with all of it. She’s – ’

‘Is she your _girlfriend_?’

‘Oh my Spirits, are you guys dating?’

‘Do you kiss?’

‘The Avatar has a girlfriend! I can’t _believe_ this!’

A pause, and then:

‘Jadi, your hat!’

‘My hat, oh _no_!’

Zuko raises his head again, just in time to see one of the girl’s hat somersault across the market on a gust of wind. The girls immediately turn and run after it, and Aang grabs Katara’s arm.

‘Aang, what a strange gust of wind!’ Katara’s brows are raised. ‘Almost as if –’

‘Yes, I confess!’ Aang laughs. ‘I’m guilty! Now, let’s _go!_ ’

Katara bites her lip, giggling as she takes Aang’s arm. The pair make a break for it, laughing together, faces flushed as they rush away through the market.

‘C’mon, guys!’ Suki says, leaping to her feet.

The four of them stumble through the market after Aang and Katara, fluttering awnings and shouting stall-owners flashing by, the giggling tumble of the four of them clattering through the crowd fuelling Zuko’s own glee, turning to look at Sokka with a manic grin on his face, panting as he runs.

Their route takes them through a few different twisting rows of stalls before opening out onto a huge square, fountain flanked with green and gold paper lanterns making up its centre. On the brim of the fountain stands a musician in bright green, string instrument in his hands that Zuko doesn’t recognise filling the square with a rippling, joyful tune.

Not too far from him, Zuko sees Aang and Katara, gripping each other by the hands and spilling over in hysterical, breathless giggles, smiles huge across each of their faces. Aang lifts himself onto his tiptoes and whispers something into Katara’s ear and the pair of them fall into laughter again.

‘Wish I could hear what they’re saying,’ Suki pouts whilst Sokka struggles to regain his breath beside her.

‘We’re already stalking them,’ Zuko laughs. ‘Let them have _some_ secrets!’

Toph grumbles, but she’s too busy tapping her feet about in an action that Zuko now recognises as trying to locate Aang and Katara’s vibrations in the crowd.

Aang is pointing at the musician, and Katara’s face is filled with a soft blush. But this time, it looks sweet, not awkward. Katara glances down at the floor, biting her lip through a nervous smile. Aang squeezes her hands, and then she nods, looking back up at him and the smile filling itself out across her face.

Aang’s smile stretches into something overjoyed.

And then, they’re dancing.

The music sweeps them up, and the sun is as bright as their smiles, and all the tension is melted away.

The song ends as Aang dips Katara down, and the pair of them stay there for a second, faces close, eyes locked, energetic blushes tickling their cheeks.

Aang smiles nervously, and then dips down to place a gentle kiss on Katara’s cheek. She smiles, bites her lip, and then puts her hands on Aang’s shoulders, pulling herself up to a standing position. There’s another pause, before Katara uses her hands – still on Aang’s shoulders – to pull him a little closer. As she moves her face closer to his, there’s a second’s pause, a _is this okay?_ , Aang dips his chin in a tiny little nod, and then their lips are pressed together.

Zuko turns away to afford them some privacy, but he can’t help smiling to himself.

‘Ah, how sweet,’ Suki says, going a little moony-eyed herself as she watches them. She turns to Sokka. ‘Almost puts me in the mood for romance myself.’

Sokka raises his eyebrows. ‘Hey, you guys?’ He looks at Toph and Zuko. ‘I reckon we’ve all had our fun, right? You mind if us two,’ he flicks his hand between himself and Suki, ‘if we, uh –’

‘Head off to make out in a corner somewhere?’ Toph says.

‘Toph!’

Toph shrugs. ‘What? You guys aren’t subtle.’

Sokka pouts. ‘I take offense at that!’

Zuko laughs. ‘No you don’t. Go on, away with you. Toph and I have stuff to discuss, anyway!’

‘Ooh, anything interesting?’

Toph grins. ‘Yes, definitely.’

There’s a pause, Suki clearly waiting for Toph to elaborate. Toph does not elaborate. Suki shrugs, smiling. ‘This morning’s been great fun, guys,’ she says. Sokka nods in agreement, before catching himself, and looking fake-annoyed. Zuko smiles for what feels like the millionth time that day. And it’s not even lunchtime! The muscles in his cheeks are going to wear out if he keeps on like this, he thinks.

As Suki drags Sokka away, waving them goodbye, Toph turns to Zuko, trying and failing to mask her excitement. ‘Shall we head to the _Jasmine Dragon_?’ she asks.

Zuko grins, and the pair of them turn in the direction of the road that leads back to the inner ring gate.

***

‘I’m glad to see you here, Zuko,’ Uncle Iroh says warmly as he approaches their table with a pot of fine Jasmine. ‘I did worry that you’d have locked yourself up in the palace to worry about your meeting tomorrow. I see that Toph is influencing you well.’

‘What,’ Toph asks, ‘you mean by keeping him away from his work?’

‘My nephew is somewhat prone to overworking himself,’ Uncle Iroh says conspiratorially.

Toph scoffs. ‘As if _that’s_ a surprise!’

Uncle Iroh smiles as Zuko shuffles in his seat. ‘Nevertheless, I’m glad to see you both here.’

‘We’re discussing how we’re going to get the pu'er!’ Toph says.

Uncle’s smile widens. ‘So you’re proceeding with that idea?’

‘Yes,’ Zuko replies. ‘I’ll talk to you more tomorrow about preparations for the party?’

Uncle Iroh nods. ‘I look forward. For now, please do enjoy the tea. I must go and serve my other patrons!’

As he bustles off back to the kitchen, Toph smiles to herself. ‘I really like your Uncle.’

Zuko smiles. ‘He likes you.’ He reaches forward to give the teakettle a gentle stir. ‘You mentioned that you already had some ideas in mind for this weekend?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pu’er (or puerh) tea is a real thing – It’s from china, and is made of fermented máochá leaves. If you’ve never tried it, I’d definitely recommend doing so sometime – though I wouldn’t drop your life savings on it, since I think it’s a bit of an acquired taste. It’s kinda earthy, but not in a smoky way like russian caravan.  
> snow skin mooncakes are also a thing! they’re kinda like a cross between a regular mooncake and a mochi, I guess? tho I don’t actually think it’s all that realistic that you’d find them at a market, as they have to be kept cold. feel free to correct me though!
> 
> hope you’re enjoying the story so far! next chapter is basically just a gaang sleepover, so prepare for some sweet platonic genfic. sometimes it’s just what you need, y’know? I think I’ll have it uploaded in the next couple days, since it’s already mostly drafted, I just need to edit.  
> zelda xx

**Author's Note:**

> hello reader, I hope you enjoyed! my name’s zelda (or zee) and whilst I’m not at all new to fic writing, I AM new to writing a:tla fic, so please please leave a comment/kudos if you like it or have opinions, it will really help me!! (and motivate me to write more!)  
> Anyway! I've got this whole fic plotted out in detail, so new chapter coming in the next few days! please bookmark for promises of: aang and katara’s first date which is not-so-subtley stalked by the gang, mai’s attempts at redemption (and a girls’ day out), sokka and zuko’s special Bro Time, and the aftermath of toph’s letter from her mother
> 
> if u wanna chat, my tumblr is zeldainhiding  
> see u soon! <3


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